Despite rise in streaming, 99% of all video watched on a TV

Internet streaming and watching video on a mobile phone are increasing, but …

The latest report from ratings firm Nielsen reveals that the number of web and mobile video viewers is up, and the time spent watching video on the internet is increasing. But the overwhelming majority of video is still viewed on a television. And Americans are watching more TV than ever.

About 131 million people are watching an average of three hours of video per month via the Internet, according to Nielsen's data. That's up from 116 million watching a monthly average of two hours this same time last year. Additionally, about 13 million mobile phone subscribers—up 52 percent from nearly 9 million last year—report watching an average of 3.5 hours of video a month on a mobile phone (time measurements are not available from Q1 last year).

Those are significant increases. The main factors fueling these changes are increases in broadband availability and bandwidth nationwide, increased exposure of services like Hulu and YouTube, and an increased proliferation of advanced, video-capable smartphones for mobile phone viewing.

But those increases pale in comparison to television, which Americans watch more than ever, averaging about 153.5 hours in front of the boob tube in a month. "Television is still the dominant choice for Americans who watch video," according to Nielsen's report. "Almost 99 percent of the video watched in the US is still done on television." You can see how the amount of TV watched by Americans dwarfs the small amount viewed online and the even smaller amount viewed via a mobile phone in the chart below.

It should come as little surprise; the TV is still the center of most living rooms, and is connected to cable boxes, DVRs, DVD players, and video game consoles (among other sources). As Conan O'Brien quipped—rather ironically, given Nielsen's results—in a recent commercial for his move to The Tonight Show, "Television allows you to watch things just as you would on your computer or cell phone, except while seated in a more comfortable chair."

Anecdotally, my own TV viewing is split between cable, watching DVDs, and streaming movies and TV shows from both Netflix and Amazon VOD via my Roku player. I have streamed hundreds of movies and TV episodes to my TV from Netflix, and streamed exactly one to my computer. And while I've watched a few TV shows via Hulu, I'd just as soon stream it from Netflix or Amazon—even if I have to pay extra. It looks better on my TV screen, sounds better pumped through my stereo, and—like Conan says—is more comfortable to watch while stretched out on my couch.

Other interesting notes from the report:

Average monthly TV viewing increases from about 108 hours for kids aged 2-11 to over 210 hours for the 65 and over set.

The biggest users of DVRs are folks aged 25-45, watching about 11-12 hours of time-shifted television per month.

Unsurprisingly, the group watching the most video online are those aged 18-24, clocking just over five hours a month on average.

And the group among those watching mobile video on mobile phones that are spending the most time squinting at a tiny screen are those aged 13-17, watching an average of 6.5 hours per month—more than double the overall average of three hours per month.

Of course, Nielsen's data doesn't account for the amount of video pulled down via file sharing. But with so many eyes planted for so long in front of a TV, it's a wonder why such a fuss is made about the Internet and how it will spell the death knell for TV networks. There's no doubt that consumers are increasingly expecting to be able to watch video when and where they want, as evidenced in particular by the online and mobile viewing habits of the younger generation. But the television still rules the video viewing roost, for now and the foreseeable future.

When the first HD sets were released many of them did not have built-in tuners so weren't technically "televisions" at all, but simply monitors. I'm not surprised that people watch video on the largest screen in their house, but whether it is "television" they are watching is debatable. This kind of report strikes me as an attempt by Nielsen to justify their relevance when most viewing is shifting over to optical media like DVDs and digital streaming like Netflix. Nielsen is unnecessary for those services since the metrics are built-in when the discs are sold or rented or video is streamed.

I watch a lot of streaming TV and downloaded TV via my PS3/Mac so I definitely do my part. Then again, they didn't include me in their polls. If it was really easy to stream TV within the TV or via an easy to use box you'd see a hell of a lot more of this.

I work 9:00 - 5:30, and with the commute it's usually closer to 6:30 by the time I get home. In order to reach 5 hours, I'd literally have to spend ALL of my free time during the week doing nothing other than watching TV (6:30 - 11:30).

And that's just the average, so for every person who doesn't do that, there's someone else who's watching even more?

I thought for these purposes it was only a "TV" if the content being watched either came from over the air, cable, or sattelite. The Netflix streaming would fall into the Internet category and DVDs into another category. Who cares that people watch stuff mostly on their big screen? No duh! What matters and what is intersting is where the content is coming from. Also, I second, or third, or whatever the 153 hours thing. That is rediculous. I have never known anyone in my life to watch anything near that amount. They must have included the hours for an entire family and counted it as one person or something. I watch about 5 hours of actual TV per month, not per day. I stream a good deal more over the internet, some of it going to my TV (Netflix to my Xbox 360).

Originally posted by daGUY:The *average* is 5 hours a day? How is that even possible?

I work 9:00 - 5:30, and with the commute it's usually closer to 6:30 by the time I get home. In order to reach 5 hours, I'd literally have to spend ALL of my free time during the week doing nothing other than watching TV (6:30 - 11:30).

And that's just the average, so for every person who doesn't do that, there's someone else who's watching even more?

This isn't all all different that my own viewing patterns. But, I'm not always watching whatever is on... I'm often reading or writing, cooking dinner, etc. I work from home, so sometimes I have the TV on, too. TV viewing isn't strictly live broadcast viewing, either. It includes time-shifting, which is why the majority of people with 9–5s watch more DVR stuff than others.

I don't do it often, either, but there are days when I just sit and watch TV all day, if I'm sick, or too tired to do anything outside, or trying to watch a marathon (Heroes? Dexter?).

But that 153 average starts at about 100 for kids, and goes up to over 200 for retired adults. I think that Ars readers in general differ from the average TV viewer in a lot of ways, so that's likely a reason many of you are so surprised how high the number is.

Let's see if I got this right: The preeminent TV ratings company produces survey results that say that its paying customers are "safe" from competition and then cashes more checks from them. Rinse, repeat.

Neilsen's data collection methods have always been questionable. But like economists and weather forecasters who are perpetually wrong, who ever really fires them?

Just to start with, the categories of "TV" and "Not TV" to be annoyingly simplified. To lump cable, on-demand services, etc. into "TV" is more than a little misleading, as regular basic cable services that require you to conform to the stations schedule are a wildly different service from an on-demand service, or Tivo. And noting the difference and trends there would, I think, be more valuable in determining what consumers want than a study that does little more than tell us that people don't want to watch American Idol or CSI on a 1.5" screen with crappy audio. That's just short of common sense.

That being said, even assuming these numbers aren't inflated, it's really a no-brainer that it came out this way. Big networks have been resisting online video for a while. Their recent attempts into the field have been more like a kid slowly walking into a pool because it's too cold, rather than diving straight in. And while I don't imagine that a huge percentage of the population is running Boxee or even their regular computer to their televisions, the fact that Hulu's content providers (major players) all said they don't want Hulu's content to be played on television...well, that says something about how willing they are to adopt this. No, right now they'd prefer that free streaming video remain in it's little pocket of the population that's either willing to sacrifice convenience for quality, or those savvy enough to make it work on their big screens.

If the big content providers suddenly got behind free (or even cheap) streaming video, and pushed programs that made it easy for consumers to get access to those services, suddenly the tune would change to, "Look at what a big percentage of people are using this new service we made!"

The definition of watching tv is really murky and doesn't have a whole lot of meaning. How do we define "watching tv"? Is watching tv anything you watch on a television? Is it watching a show produced for cable or a network?

I have a computer hooked up to my tv, when I watch shows on Hulu on my tv is that watching something on the internet or on tv? If I watch a movie on my laptop is that watching tv? If I stream a video from my computer to the xbox 360 is that watching tv? If I watch a dvd of a tv show is that watching tv?

There are so many ways to watch "tv" that we almost need a new term. Between Hulu, netflix, dvr, itunes, xbox360 marketplace, DVD sales of tv shows, and oh yeah plain old broadcast tv there are so many ways to watch a show that watching tv just doesn't cover the activities we do.

You know honestly I don't have the "whatever is on" mentality of most Americans and I was about to do the "Holy crap! 5 hours a day" thing too until I realized, where I work we have a TV (a few actually) on 24/7. And granted it's usually playing nothing but 24 hour news but I still watch it while/instead of working. So yeah, I suppose I get an "average" of about 50 hours when you include the work watched news channels.

But when you talk about things I like to watch, that's mostly streamed or downloaded online and I'd estimate that at 10 hours a week or less (unless I get hooked on an old show on Hulu and watch entire seasons of it).

I know that this is largely semantic, but all the TV I watch is over the internet but displayed on my HDTV. All I needed was a decent wireless keyboard to get rid of cable television and turn to Hulu and other sites.

It's really not that surprising. The report doesn't really distinguish between the source of the content being watched, simply what screen people consume content (primarily video) on. They can be watching a movie, watching TV, watching pirated content through a PC—it doesn't matter (although so few people do the latter that it doesn't matter).

They actually did the study by following people around and watching them. If you walk into a room and watch look at the TV for a few minutes, then go back to doing your laundry—that counts as a few minutes.

I thought it was shocking too, because I don't even own a TV. I probably watch less than 30 minutes of video on TV a week. In fact, it's probably less than 10 minutes.

But the average? Yeah, 5 hours a day seems reasonable. My roommate is always watching TV. Constantly. I don't know how she does it, to be honest. On the weekends she probably consumes 15-20 hours of TV.

People spend a lot of time in front of that box. And I notice my parents, who are older now, watch a ton of TV. Whenever I get home some news channel is always on. Always.

I think a lot of people don't quite realize what "Middle America" really is. Most people don't work in tech, don't spend all day on the computer, barely know how to work an iPod, work a shitty job for low pay, eat fast food and spend 4-5 hours a day watching TV. Seriously, have you driven around this motherfucker?

"TV in the Home includes Live viewing plus any playback viewing within 7 days. Timeshifted TV is playback primarily on a DVR but including playback services like Start Over as well as playback from a DVD recorder."

That's from the PDF, so it doesn't seem as though they are including video streaming to the television. But since they totally ignore DVDs (i.e. stuff way older than 7 days) as a discreet category, I'm betting they worded the survey to inflate the results. I could easily see the question just written out as:"How many hours do you watch television?""How many hours do you watch recorded shows?""How many hours do you watch videos on your computer?"That would have most people counting any time they watch something on their television. The wording about recorded shows would definitely lower the timeshifting numbers by causing people to ignore when they pause TV for 5min to be able to ffw through the commercials later. And the last would ignore any streaming that was connected to the TV.

Originally posted by qchronod:"TV in the Home includes Live viewing plus any playback viewing within 7 days. Timeshifted TV is playback primarily on a DVR but including playback services like Start Over as well as playback from a DVD recorder."

That's from the PDF, so it doesn't seem as though they are including video streaming to the television. But since they totally ignore DVDs (i.e. stuff way older than 7 days) as a discreet category, I'm betting they worded the survey to inflate the results. I could easily see the question just written out as:"How many hours do you watch television?""How many hours do you watch recorded shows?""How many hours do you watch videos on your computer?"That would have most people counting any time they watch something on their television. The wording about recorded shows would definitely lower the timeshifting numbers by causing people to ignore when they pause TV for 5min to be able to ffw through the commercials later. And the last would ignore any streaming that was connected to the TV.

TV is still the biggest way to get away from work. Computer is work. Computer doesn't connect to TV without jumping through nerd hoops. Mom and Dad aren't nerds. Therefore no internet enabled TV and so no streaming TV - plain old TV. Bunny ears wrapped in tinfoil if they still worked - dammit.

Sarcasm aside, I believe it's still that chasm between the computer room and TV room that keeps streaming from being ubiquitous. Streaming TV (Hulu is my drug of choice) is almost my sole method of getting media now days. But I don't mind sitting at the computer to watch The Daily Show while working on something mindless/repetitive -- emails, WoW dailies, posting to Ars...

Originally posted by divisionbyzero:Exactly what counts as video here? Does youTube count or is it just long form content that is also available on television? If it's the latter, the study is seriously flawed and biased toward television. I guess I'll have to read the study.

I read the study. It's not clear whether it is content agnostic. This study doesn't pass the smell test.

Originally posted by watchout5:Ya I was going to say the same thing, I can't imagine spending 8 fucking hours watching TV on the weekend though, I can however see myself spending 8 hours watching youtube videos.

Right now I certainly don't spend 8 hours watching TV on the weekend, but come football season... oh yeah. Every weekend (except weekends when I'm actually at games). But Youtube? Not even close. That's like a 5 minute activity for me.

Originally posted by qchronod:"TV in the Home includes Live viewing plus any playback viewing within 7 days. Timeshifted TV is playback primarily on a DVR but including playback services like Start Over as well as playback from a DVD recorder."

That's from the PDF, so it doesn't seem as though they are including video streaming to the television. But since they totally ignore DVDs (i.e. stuff way older than 7 days) as a discreet category, I'm betting they worded the survey to inflate the results. I could easily see the question just written out as:"How many hours do you watch television?""How many hours do you watch recorded shows?""How many hours do you watch videos on your computer?"That would have most people counting any time they watch something on their television. The wording about recorded shows would definitely lower the timeshifting numbers by causing people to ignore when they pause TV for 5min to be able to ffw through the commercials later. And the last would ignore any streaming that was connected to the TV.

Originally posted by itrackmine:I tried tweeting this but Twitter is down

TV is still the biggest way to get away from work. Computer is work. Computer doesn't connect to TV without jumping through nerd hoops. Mom and Dad aren't nerds. Therefore no internet enabled TV and so no streaming TV - plain old TV. Bunny ears wrapped in tinfoil if they still worked - dammit.

Sarcasm aside, I believe it's still that chasm between the computer room and TV room that keeps streaming from being ubiquitous. Streaming TV (Hulu is my drug of choice) is almost my sole method of getting media now days. But I don't mind sitting at the computer to watch The Daily Show while working on something mindless/repetitive -- emails, WoW dailies, posting to Ars...

Anybody know if there is a remote control plug-in for FF/Flash/Hulu? The wires from the laptop to the TV are not long enough to keep the laptop on my lap and I don't want to get off my couch to browse shows. I realize that sounds lazy but I be a lot of people feel the same way.

Originally posted by qchronod:"TV in the Home includes Live viewing plus any playback viewing within 7 days. Timeshifted TV is playback primarily on a DVR but including playback services like Start Over as well as playback from a DVD recorder."

That's from the PDF, so it doesn't seem as though they are including video streaming to the television. But since they totally ignore DVDs (i.e. stuff way older than 7 days) as a discreet category, I'm betting they worded the survey to inflate the results. I could easily see the question just written out as:"How many hours do you watch television?""How many hours do you watch recorded shows?""How many hours do you watch videos on your computer?"That would have most people counting any time they watch something on their television. The wording about recorded shows would definitely lower the timeshifting numbers by causing people to ignore when they pause TV for 5min to be able to ffw through the commercials later. And the last would ignore any streaming that was connected to the TV.

Originally posted by watchout5:Ya I was going to say the same thing, I can't imagine spending 8 fucking hours watching TV on the weekend though, I can however see myself spending 8 hours watching youtube videos.

Sports fans spend a lot of time watching TV. I'm one of them!! Until live sports can be streamed with at least the same quality as "TV," good ol TV will never be replaced!

Originally posted by itrackmine:I tried tweeting this but Twitter is down

TV is still the biggest way to get away from work. Computer is work. Computer doesn't connect to TV without jumping through nerd hoops. Mom and Dad aren't nerds. Therefore no internet enabled TV and so no streaming TV - plain old TV. Bunny ears wrapped in tinfoil if they still worked - dammit.

Sarcasm aside, I believe it's still that chasm between the computer room and TV room that keeps streaming from being ubiquitous. Streaming TV (Hulu is my drug of choice) is almost my sole method of getting media now days. But I don't mind sitting at the computer to watch The Daily Show while working on something mindless/repetitive -- emails, WoW dailies, posting to Ars...

Anybody know if there is a remote control plug-in for FF/Flash/Hulu? The wires from the laptop to the TV are not long enough to keep the laptop on my lap and I don't want to get off my couch to browse shows. I realize that sounds lazy but I be a lot of people feel the same way.

I think a lot of people don't quite realize what "Middle America" really is. Most people don't work in tech, don't spend all day on the computer, barely know how to work an iPod, work a shitty job for low pay, eat fast food and spend 4-5 hours a day watching TV. Seriously, have you driven around this motherfucker?

Considering I've participated twice in one of their surveys, yes I do.

quote:

Go check out the unemployment rates, that's probably why it's so high and rising. What else do people have to do, but watch Oprah?